This here is a follow-up to my previous article on my interview with Patricia Corbett about Jump Starting Your Creativity. Patricia is a very inspiring person who has worked hard to accomplish all that she has. As the oldest child of her family, Patricia started off by working to support her family while taking night classes.
She worked her way all the way up to become an accomplished opera singer and then later, an artist whose works have been widely shown all around.
If you are looking to grow as a creative person, Patricia has some words of wisdom for you.
Like-Minded Associations
As a creative person, competition is a good thing. Join 2 or 3 professional organizations of like-minded people and share your work with them. As your work gets critiqued and as it competes with the works of the other members, you get inspired to do better work and grow.
“I’m from a very large family. Being from a large family … what happens is that there is a competitive ambitiousness that comes about. You compete among yourselves. It could be frustrating sometimes but it’s a way of being inspired.”
Five of Patricia’s 11 siblings work in varied media and her brother Michael Carpenter, is an OPA Signature Artist. Patricia is also a member of various professional organizations.
Voice:
As a creative person, there comes a point where imitation should begin to fade into inspiration. You have to switch from just imitating to a place where you start to bring out of your own self what it is that you like about the things you imitated. When you’re no longer imitating but other works begin to serve as inspiration for you to create what you want to create, then you’ve found your voice.
“As a singer it took me many years to find my own voice because I was imitating all the famous singers. And that’s a good way to learn – learn by imitation. But eventually, you have to find your own way of [doing things]. Finding your voice means you have the techniques, the principles and now you let go and start creating from your inner core.”
Talents
“When I was younger singing, I thought it was magical. I thought I’d just sing beautifully and they won’t be able to say no so the big shock was it’s a mixture of experience (which comes from practice) and good technique.” Talent helps. I’ve been drawing since I was a little girl. It just came naturally. I could see well-known artists who couldn’t draw and all of a sudden, they passed me by in many respects because they were practicing.
While Patricia was concentrating on growing her career as an opera singer, the artists she knew passed her by until she returned to painting again much later in her life.
Success:
Patricia starts by saying “don’t wait to be successful as a …painter [creative person]”.
As soon as you start creating, you are a [creative person]! She contrasts that statement by saying.
“You cannot give up. [You’ve] got to have the background of hard work, of losing, of failure, to create success. You have to fall down a lot to be able to stand up and be successful.”
Many, many words of wisdom.
Thanks a lot, Patricia, it was a wonderful interview and I enjoyed the polenta wrap 🙂
As always, I love to hear what you’ve all got to say. See you in the comments section below.
Warmest regards,
Also published on Medium.
Inspiring conversation with Patricia. Lessons translate beyond “growing as a creative person”. Seen in my life as an entrepreneur. Perhaps secret to success in life?
Thanks for sharing.
Very true. These are lessons that apply to every stage of life.